


Better When Not Alone

by ProngsAndPens



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, M/M, McGenji - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 12:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13811238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProngsAndPens/pseuds/ProngsAndPens
Summary: Jesse's had to be alone for most of his life, but he's also learned how important it was to have a family. He met Genji when he was too angry to even have a conversation with, and tried to get past the walls built around the cyborg's heart. Then Overwatch was disbanded, and the two were separated. But Jesse still hopes that one day, his family will be put back together, and he won't have to be alone again. (Hint: he won't)





	Better When Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This is just some nice McGenji fluff, because I felt like writing some. Enjoy!

He should have known, really.

 

Seven years, and the world passes you by. You hold on to the past and those memories, trying to think up what might have happened, how things might have turned out, but it never works.

 

Jesse’s no stranger to that. He’s never really hung up his hat, and so he’s seen the world spin and pass him by while both hiding and trying to do what he can to keep it in the right direction. It’s not easy, especially alone. He has a lot of experience with it, he’s had to learn the hard way to hold his own, alone. But he’s also learned that being with people made him stronger. It was true when he was in the wrong path as a part of the Deadlock gang, and it was true again when he was picked up by an angry, snarky man wielding two shotguns that somehow saw enough “potential” in him to spare his life.

 

* * *

 

 

It was true when he met adults that believed in him, and a younger girl who somehow ended up looking up to him and helping him become himself, the same way he helped her. She taught him how important it was to have a family, no matter how far away they might be. Because hearts don’t see the distance.

 

It was true when he met a brunette that just came back from being a ghost, yet thrived and held on to life and her musical laugh. She taught him the value of hope, and, even though the world struck him down many times, he understood that giving up on fighting for a better future was the only way to truly lose.

 

* * *

 

 

It was true when he met a cyborg, once a half-dead man, alone, angry, and hateful. He should have been scared, at first, but he’d learned to see what someone hides under a layer of grit and rage. And after what people did for him just because they believed he could be someone good, he wasn’t going to give up.

 

* * *

 

 

It took a long time, days of small quips and jokes answered only with grunts and disdain, if not outright anger, but eventually Genji – that was his name – started talking to him. Greetings, at first, some monosyllabic words, but Jesse didn’t give up, and he offered himself as a newfound family. And, day after day, mission after mission, he got to know a young man formerly known as the Sparrow, who was still angry but less when he was around. Who was at war with himself, unsure of who he was, of where he stood, his body no longer one he recognised. Jesse knew the feeling. He stayed.

 

 

Then his family was broken apart, and Jesse had to learn to be alone again. But he didn’t forget what his family had taught him. No matter how far apart from each other they were, he didn’t forget them, and he kept hoping that someday it would be okay again. He hoped that they were safe, that they were happy.

He hoped that Genji was finally finding some peace.

 

* * *

 

 

The world started going wrong again, and his hope was shaken, but he tried his hardest to hold on. He was handling things, even alone, and he hoped that, should his family see him, they’d be proud.

Jesse missed the recall. His phone was hidden away, secured in a place he’d only go to when the world would truly get to him, and he was losing hope. He had his pictures, the one of him and his sister, when his beard was just starting to grow, as the same time as his heart was starting to feel too full for his chest. The one of him and a girl much smaller bearing a grin that he’d sometimes see on old posters of people holding on to items from a peaceful past. A smile almost too big for her face, radiant with hope. One with an older woman with a tattoo under her eye, that always looked at him with kindness. One of him flanked with a blonde man, and on the other side that very same man that made him an offer he was so happy he’d taken.

 

* * *

 

 

One of him with a cyborg that would look angry to a stranger, but Jesse had learned to see the small ways that anger subsided. Disappearing from around his eyes when they were near each other, the frown that smoothed over when Jesse would make a particularly corny joke, the shoulders relaxing when he’d put an arm around them.

 

* * *

 

 

He was in a bar downtown, nursing a drink while the news of a world going awry rang through it. Jesse wasn’t listening. He was paying attention to the whispers. Whispers of heroes that never really stopped protecting the innocent. He recalled a bob of black hair with golden ornaments, a familiar tattoo passed down, a steely determination, yet a kindness too. Whispers of heroes standing up again, even if it was forbidden. His mind flashed back to a familiar tuft of messy brown hair and a bright smile, and a heart that always believed that people could be good. Jesse, not for the first time, allowed himself to get lost in his memories once more. He thought he even heard the featherlight footsteps that Genji used to have, as he downed his drink with a chuckle. _Talk about the impossible._

 

* * *

 

 

Someone he didn’t know sat in front of him, in a dark green hoodie and dirt-stained jeans. Jesse’s brain automatically went into hyperdrive. The figure’s hood was pulled up above their face, and in the semi-darkness of the bar, there was no way to get any specific features. His hand flew to Peacekeeper, that never left his side. The figure had a small sigh, and Jesse startled at the familiar sound. The rational part of his brain said that it was impossible, but his heart was singing a completely different tune.

 

“Glad to see you still have _some_ reflexes, McCree.” Genji said, his tone playful.

 

He pulled his hood back, revealing his mask, that made a slight sound as he unclipped it. There was enough privacy where they were to allow the both of them to talk unhidden. Jesse was gaping, stuck between laughing and dancing on tables, and crying of happiness to see him again.

 

* * *

 

 

Genji was well. That was certain, and that also was a great understatement. He was _great._ Overwatch fell, and he teetered on the verge of falling back into all of the anger he had, but he looked for a place where he could find peace. He found it.

 

* * *

 

 

Jesse was ripped away from a man that was barely starting to learn how not to jump at the throat of anything that came towards him. Thanks to the cowboy, he started to try to find ways to get rid of that anger. Now, Owerwatch was being reunited - in secret - and Genji had decided to seek him out, personally, to have him at his side again. Jesse was now riding a train next to someone that was at peace with himself. But it was still the Genji he’d started to see through the cracks. It was still _his_ Genji. That was certain. And as they hitchhiked a hoverplane that would fly above Gibraltar, back to some of his family, Jesse caught up with Genji. They made up for lost time and spoke of everything. Jesse’s heart was fluttering in his chest.

 

* * *

 

 

When they reached the place where they would drop off, Jesse put his hand on Genji’s shoulder, like he used to, except this time Genji pulled him closer. They both fell towards the watchpoint at high speed before getting their parachutes out, but Jesse felt like he was flying.

 

* * *

 

 

His family slowly put itself back together, little by little, and Jesse didn’t have to be alone again. Except that this time, while he was starting to shine again the way he used to, an attentive pair of eyes watched him, learning just like he did those years ago.

 

* * *

 

 

Genji and Jesse made up for some more lost time one evening on the roof of the watchpoint, finally locking lips after weeks of tiptoeing and longing stares. Jesse’s hands met the cool metal of Genji’s armour, while the cyborg ran his fingers along his bearded cheeks and through his hair. The calm around them was eerie, but at the same time very reminiscent of the calm that Genji finally found, and Jesse basked in the moment, proud of how far they’d both gone.

* * *

 

 

 

When he was younger, Jesse learned that a family was necessary, but didn’t have to be blood-related. Then he met a man whose family had broken his trust, and he offered himself as a new one. Now that man had found peace, in no small part thanks to Jesse trying to help him open up and trust again. They found in each other something that some would say was impossible to people like them. Jesse had gotten his family back, and Genji had found his. And as the sun finished going down and they slowly walked back into the watchpoint for the night, Jesse realised one thing.

 

He really had been right to keep his hopes up. And somehow, he’d gotten even more than he could have hoped for.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this! :)  
> Find me at prongsandpens.tumblr.com


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